Word: erhards
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Everybody was wrong, including Ludwig Erhard. For weeks, the pollsters had been predicting a virtual tie between Erhard's Christian Democratic Union and the opposition Social Democrats in West Germany's national elections. Watching the returns trickling in on TV with his wife Luise, the Chancellor confided, "I always counted on having a jump on the opposition of about 5% . I felt it in my fingertips...
...Fingerspitzengefühl was a little off. When all the votes were counted, Erhard's Christian Democrats had won by more than 8% over their rivals. The C.D.U. polled 47.6% of the vote, up from 45.3% in 1961. The Social Democrats won 39.3% of the vote, for a gain of 3% . The only losers were Vice-Chancellor Erich Mende's Free Dem ocratic Party, whose percentage of the ballots slipped from 12.8% to 9.5%. The Christian Democrats elected 244 Deputies to the Bundestag, the Social Democrats 201, and the Free Democrats...
Torchlight Serenade. It was Erhard's first independent campaign since he took over as Chancellor from Konrad Adenauer, and he scored an impressive personal victory over West Berlin Mayor Willy Brandt. Observers had wondered whether Onkel Ludwig's earnest, professorial platform style might not bore the voters. As it turned out, they seemed to lap it up. On election night, 60 teen-agers dropped around to serenade him by the light of torches and a pale quarter-moon. The tune was his campaign song...
...West Germany's Ludwig Erhard remarks to his host at the L.B.J. Ranch...
Doing their bit to boost the tension were the latest opinion polls, which had something for everyone. One private survey made for the C.D.U. showed that Erhard's party lead had shrunk from 48% to 45%, a bare 2% ahead of the Social Democrats. A second study, made by an equally respected polling organization, showed they still had 47% of the vote, enough for the solid victory Ludwig Erhard hopes...